A cyanine dye (4) bearing two boronic acids was designed and synthesized, expecting the selective binding of monosaccharides through the formation of 1:1 intramolecular complexes. While it aggregates in water, it exists discretely in water/methanol 1:1 mixed solvent. In the latter solvent the fluorescence spectra were scarcely affected by the medium pH but efficiently increased when it formed intramolecular 1:1 complexes with monosaccharides. This complexation mode was also corroborated by CD spectroscopy and continuous variation plots. Hence, the saccharide induced fluorescence increase is rationalized in terms of ''rigidification'' of the cyanine skeleton. The association constants (K) were estimated from plots of saccharide concentration vs. fluorescence intensity: the largest K was observed for D-fructose (1.3 x 10(5) M(-1)) and the next for D-arabinose (1.0 x 10(4) M(-1)). This is a novel system for sensitive and selective fluorescence detection of monosaccharides.